Tina Romero is stepping behind the camera for her directorial debut, and she’s not shying away from the family legacy. Her first feature, Queens of the Dead, is set to premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival on June 7, and yes, it’s a zombie movie.
But, this one’s marching to the beat of a queer warehouse drag show, not the slow shuffle of mall-wandering corpses. In a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, referencing her late father, George A. Romero, she said:
“I am his kid. There’s no denying it. And he has influenced me greatly. And this is his monster, this is his genre. I had fun doing my little Romero nods throughout the film, and we have some good ones.”
She’s stepping into the sandbox her father built, while adding a few glitter bombs of her own. She also named dropped horror icons like Tom Savini and Dawn of the Dead’s Gaylen Ross who pop up in the film.
Queens of the Dead is a love letter to horror, to queer culture, and to the rebellious spirit of independent filmmaking. Set over the course of one chaotic night in the queer party scene, the story unfolds at a drag show just as the zombie apocalypse kicks off.
Romero, who’s spent time DJing in these exact kinds of spaces, found inspiration in an online feud among party promoters.
“The original promoter posted this manifesto begging the question, ‘When will the queer community stop devouring its own?’ And it hit me like a bolt of lightning. I was like, ‘Oh my God! This would be how I want to explore the zombie genre in this world of queer nightlife.’”
Romero is leaning into this concept without losing her sense of humor, or her sharpness. She went on to explain:
“The zombie apocalypse is such a rich sandbox to play in when it comes to social commentary. I can’t be my dad’s daughter without making an attempt at saying something with zombies.
“I did want this to be a film in which I am paying homage to the world and the monster he created, but I’m also introducing my own voice. It’s very much not a film he would make, but it is using his vocabulary and is playing by his rules.”
It’s also a film that unapologetically centers queer voices in horror, which something Tina felt was long overdue.
“As far as the queer element, on one hand, I just feel like the gays need a zombie film. It’s time that we get to have a big gay zombie movie.”
There’s also a fun little footnote in the production credits: a special thanks to Tom Cruise. Katy O’Brien, who is best known for villain duty in The Mandalorian, stars as the drag show’s no-nonsense promoter, and Cruise reportedly allowed her to carve out time from shooting Mission: Impossible to film Queens of the Dead.
While George Romero never got to read the finished script, he encouraged Tina to chase the idea when she first pitched it.
“He said, ‘I love it! Run with it. Go for it.’ Unfortunately, he never got to read the completed script because it took me about seven years to get this developed… but I did have this blessing.”
Tina Romero isn’t trying to replicate her father’s work, she’s remixing it for a new generation. With drag queens, zombie carnage, and a whole lot of heart.
